In the fifth Betsy-Tacy book we take quite a leap forward - Betsy and Tacy are now fourteen and entering high school, and the tone of the book is very prototypical YA! Tacy is barely in this book and Tib, having moved to another state, is entirely absent, so the book is very much focused on Betsy and her crowd of high school friends. Despite their absences, I really enjoyed this.

The past is another country but sometimes it's a very recognisable place! Betsy and her new friends cheer boys at the football, and she waits impatiently to be invited to parties, and she develops a massive crush on the new boy in town who has a bad boy air about him.

I liked that Betsy, with all her crushes and her string of beaux, is depicted as one of a spectrum of girls. Some of her friends see all these teen romances as a step towards marriage, with their full hope chests, before they settle down in Deep Valley forever. Others like Tacy simply aren't interested in boys (which I found so interesting, if Tacy had been written today like that I'd assume this was sowing seeds for her to be gay or ace or demi). And Betsy herself, very interested in boys, is after romance and adventure, explicitly thinking to herself that marriage isn't her goal at all and like her sister Julia dreaming of a bigger life after high school.

There's a kind of messiness to the interactions of all these youths - who is 'going with' who, crushes developing, friendships coalescing - especially because few of these threads travel in a linear line. This feels true to life, probably because it was so drawn from Lovelace's own life.

One underlying thread: Betsy's relationship to stories and storytelling. For much of the book she hides it away or forgets about it. Only towards the end does she decide actually, writing is part of her identity.

Betsy’s growing up and paying attention to boys! Loved that.

Not sure how many times I’ve read this book at this point. Maybe a hundred? I picked it up to read the Christmas chapters but couldn’t resist starting from the beginning. I love Betsy Ray and her world. I love remembering the “painful sweetness” of being a fourteen-year-old girl.

“At church now they were practicing the Christmas music. Some of it was familiar and caused to ring in Betsy’s head the bells of childhood Christmases. Some of it was unfamiliar, for Episcopalian hymns were different from Baptist hymns. All of it was beautiful. It filled the empty chilly church with a glory like golden light.

“Julia, who never cared what people thought, often went down into the nave and knelt and said a prayer. Sometimes Betsy went with her. She even went alone when Julia was practicing a solo, and the nave was unlighted, and no one would see.

“When she prayed alone like that, it seemed to her that she could hardly bear the painful sweetness of life. She prayed that she might grow prettier, that Tony might come to love her, that she might be a writer some day. It was amazing how light and free she felt, after she prayed.”

...

“Tony and Bonnie sat side by side, his arm draped over the back of the seat. It was a horrible party for Betsy who remarked at frequent intervals that she never had had so much fun in her life.”

In a bittersweet moment at the close of Heaven to Betsy, Betsy reflects on her childhood home on Hill Street, which she was loathe to leave, and which now seems to belong wholly to the past: "And yet, even as she spoke, she knew that she did not wish to come back, not to stay, not to live. She loved the little yellow cottage more than she loved any place on earth, but she was through with it except in her memories." That sense, of leaving behind childish things, is continually evoked in this, Maud Hart Lovelace's fifth book detailing the adventures of Betsy Ray and Tacy Kelly, two best friends growing up in early twentieth-century Minnesota.

Just entering high school, Betsy and Tacy find a new world opening up before them, complete with new friends, a seemingly endless round of parties and activities, and all the pleasure and heartache of having "beaus" for the first time. Now a part of "The Crowd," Betsy and Tacy are soon involved in the social rituals of their teen years, with all the special vocabulary - pet phrases in Latin, references to the TDS (Tall, Dark Stranger) - and lighthearted fun one would expect. Although not boy-crazy like Betsy, who develops her first true crush on Deep Valley newcomer Tony Markham, Tacy nevertheless maintains an interest in, and sympathy for her friend's activities. But as freshman year draws to a close, it becomes apparent that something is off-kilter in their world...

Like Betsy when her family moves from Hill to High Street, I wasn't quite sure that I would like these new developments. I regretted the loss of the imaginative girl-child of Lovelace's first four books, not sure I would take to this giddy new creature who seemed determined to sell herself short at every opportunity. I resented the absence of Tib, whose sensible approach to matters always served as an excellent counter-balance to Betsy's exuberance, and longed to see more of Tacy, who seemed to have become a low narrative priority, subsumed by "The Crowd." I missed Lois Lenski's illustrations, which always seemed to perfectly match Lovelace's text, and found Vera Neville's work rather sentimental in comparison.

In short, I had reservations about the changes in Betsy-Tacy's world, however inevitable they may have been, and - having never really experienced the kind of adolescence described therein - found myself emotionally indifferent throughout much of the novel. Fortunately, my reading experience was redeemed by the sense of family love to be found in the Ray home; by the frank and tolerant manner in which Lovelace and her characters approached the issue of religious conviction, in the episodes involving Betsy and Julia's desire to become Episcopalians; and by Betsy's realization at the end of her freshman year that she should not have abandoned her writing.

This last factor, in particular, had me breathing a sigh of relief, as I realized that Betsy hadn't really changed, that she had just - as must we all - been going through some growing pains. It may not have had the magic of n  Betsy~Tacyn or the other early books, but Heaven to Betsy strikes me as a necessary transition to the later books, which I now eagerly look forward to reading!

"Let me set you right on one thing first of all," he said. "We aren't going to decide this on the basis of what people will say. You might as well learn right now, you two, that the poorest guide you can have in life is what people will say" (209).

I love this series and especially this book. This is my favorite one out of the high school years: Heaven to Betsy, Betsy in Spite of Herself, Betsy Was a Junior, and Betsy and Joe. When I was in third grade, my mom saw these books in the library and she had read one and thought that I would like them. I'm glad she saw them and checked them out for me because I love them.

In Heaven to Betsy, Betsy is beginning a whole new life in high school, and I love the new traditions. Her father hosts Sunday night lunches each week and everyone comes over to visit and sample his sandwiches. The entire family makes an annual trip to Murmuring Lake to visit the place where her mother and father fell in love. Betsy gains many new friends and forms The Crowd. The Crowd has a lot of fun together hosting parties, singing, dancing, skating, etc. Betsy forms her first crush and gets a trail of boys to follow her around.

There is such charm in all of these stories. These are very sweet, old-fashioned books where you feel at home with the Rays as if they are your family too. If you are too young for the childhood years, I highly recommend starting with Heaven to Betsy to read during your teenage years.

perfectly sweet and nostalgic, betsy and tacy and their world are so dear to me. it felt so different to read now that i’m older than the characters, but the story and the feeling are the same: idyllic, wholesome, surprisingly boy-crazy. thanks for reading to me dear sisters!

This book is a great summer mystery read. It revolves around a quirky female paralegal who is recently separated from her husband and returns to her family home in Texas. She struggles with her marital status, unwanted pregnancy, her mother and her feelings for her new boss. She does all of this with humor, while she tries to save a lost child of a illegal alien mother who is found deal. I highly recommend this book to anyone who likes this genre.

Loved the book. First of the Betsy-Tacy books that I have read and now can not wait to read the others. Thanks Betsy for sending me the book and getting me hooked on the series!

April 2022
When I re-read this book, it's motly for the early chapter at Butternut Center, where Betsy first meets Joe. And maybe a little bit for that part where they have a very short conversation at the library. Also because, let's be honest, it's better to read Betsy & Joe when you've worked your way through all the high school stories, not just the last one.

And because I just wanted to read a chapter of something cozy and happy before bed each night. Something to make my brain quiet down and stop thinking about work. These are big time comfort reads for me.

Totally adorable and fun. I wish I could send all my rivals packing off to Paris.

The continuing adventures of Betsy and Tacy as they take on changing friendships, moving to a new home and most daunting of all, High School!

There is a definite change of tone in this book. Tib has moved to another city, and though they mention her and talk about writing letters to her and receiving letters from her, she isn't in it at all! This feels so weird for a book, but is completely true to life, and sets the book up for all the changes it explores. Some of them are less dramatic, like the Rays moving to a new house (still within walking distance of Tacy's home), the budding romances of Betsy and many of the other high school girls around her and new friendships. Others are extremely dramatic, and especially for the time, controversial, as Betsy and Julia decide to change church denominations (for those worried by other reviews that the girls change religions, that isn't technically true as they stay in the Christian faith, they simply switch from Baptist to Episcopalian). However, my favorite was the school competition. Betsy is entered into a writing competition and she, her family, friends and teachers are all quite certain she has it in the bag. In the weeks she has to prepare, Betsy has a lot of social engagements and decides not to take the time to study that she should have, which ends the cliché in a bit of a twist. Betsy fails, pretty spectacularly (as she should!) and has to come to terms with her actions and face if she really is willing to put in the time and effort to be a great writer.

No usual content issues, though the "romances" between the kids is a little sad as they casually break off being "serious" and start going out with a new partner whenever they feel like it and for whatever reason; also they mention playing with a Ouija board several times, they don't call on spirits they just ask it questions and wait for it to "magically" answer, so could be a good discussion starter on what "magic" means in different contexts.

I wish I had known Betsy as a girl. I mean, I wish I had known to read these books. Betsy is vaguely Anne-like (Anne Shirley Blythe, that is.), and I loved Anne so deeply. But at least in this book, one of the things that I think I relate to more than I did with Anne is Betsy's feelings about boys. I think I was really into the idea of a boy liking me back, the way Betsy is. At the same time, I always knew I was more than that, in vaguely the way Betsy does. Betsy's bafflement at Caroline's and Bonnie's desires to be wives and mothers and housewives feels SO familiar to me. Anyway, I'm really excited to read the rest of the books, because I think they'll also be a treat. But I'm going to try to mete them out, so I don't exhaust them immediately!